Treatment of Sex Offenders

14 Changing Course: From a Victim/Offender Duality to a Public Health Perspective
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offense to be labeled as such. The confusion surrounding definitions of sexual
violence in society may distort the issue for the general population and make it difficult
to respond to as well as prevent (McCartan, Kemshall, & Tabachnick, 2015 ;
Harris & Socia, 2015 ), with the label of being a sex offender having a negative
impact on all offenders, especially adolescents and children (Pittman, 2013 ).
Even with these varying definitions, some clear information has emerged from
the research. Both criminal justice reports and surveys of victims consistently identify
males as the primary perpetrators of sexual violence (Ministry of Justice, Home
Office & the Office for National Statistics 2013 ; Wilson & Prescott, 2014 ), although
women also commit sexual abuse (Eliott & Bailey, 2014 ; Gannon & Cortoni, 2010 ).
The majority of these crimes are perpetrated by someone the victim knows. In cases
of child sexual abuse, one-third of the cases are perpetrated by a family member and
two-thirds by someone the victim knows (Snyder, 2000 ). In addition, it is clear that,
although the majority of sex offenses are committed by adults, a significant proportion
(20–50 %) is committed by adolescents (Barbaree & Marshall, 2006 ; Finkelhor,
Ormrod, & Chaffin, 2009 ; Knight & Prentky, 1993 ). Because research is beginning
to clearly demonstrate considerable differences between adults and adolescents who
sexually abuse (Przybylski & Lobanov-Rostovsky, 2015 ), decidedly different intervention
and prevention strategies are needed for these distinct populations.
The Baseline Issue and the Impact on Responding
to Sexual Violence
Because the majority (80–90 %) of sexual violence remains unreported to authorities
(Hanson, Resnick, Saunders, Kilpatrick, & Best, 1999 ; Tjaden & Thoennes,
2006 ), defining the scope of sexual violence remains a significant challenge (Saied-
Tessier, 2014 ). This means that there is no reliable baseline to start from in measuring
the reality of sexual violence either nationally or internationally. Therefore, the
available data and related analysis is always contextual (e.g., to the time and location
of recording) and relational (e.g., to the previous year’s recorded data). Shame,
fear, and threats of physical violence are among the many reasons why victims do
not report these crimes (London, Bruck, Ceci, & Shuman, 2005 ; UNICEF, 2014 ). In
addition, only a small percentage of reported sex crimes ever go to trial and are successfully
prosecuted (Abel et al., 1987 ; Ministry of Justice, 2013 ; Stroud, Martens,
& Barker, 2000 ) (see Fig. 14.1 ). Consequently, many researchers use retrospective
surveys of adult men and women to better understand and measure the prevalence
of sexual violence over the life span.
We do know something about reported cases of sexual violence: based upon the
National Crime Victimization Survey , an estimated 243,800 rapes were perpetrated
in 2011 (Truman, Langton, & Planty, 2013 ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
records over 100,000 local and state arrests for sex crimes each year (FBI, 2010 ).
Given the number of cases that are unreported to authorities, the scope of sexual
violence is almost certainly much larger than these numbers indicate (Ministry of